Edelman Atlanta

It hit me this week that since Feb. 15 most of my time has been in the company of 20 Canadians who manage British Columbia-Canada Place. I've made some great lifelong friends in the cabin, and I think we will need to open a satellite ATL office in Vancouver sometime by 2009. Tomorrow we have our final media event hosted by BC with delegates from Sydney, Torino, Vancouver, London and Beijing talking about how to make sure the host city/state/province governments will reap the benefits of hosting an Olympics. It's fascinating to work with the Associated Press Beijing bureau chief and about 30 of Canada's national media who have RSVP'd so far.

The Tonight Show live spot with taped segment from BC Canada Place aired last night and was incredibly possitive. Tom Green donned the Canada gear we brought to the late night set, and everyone at Edelman has an open invitation to the Jay Leno studio audience when next we are in LA. Al Roker and the Today Show entourage were easy to work with (though we had some tough negotiations at the last minute to set up a shot for them). I understand Entertainment Tonight's shots with pasta house were also well received back home. We now have a friend at the Arab Radio TV network (peer to Al Jazeera) which aired live from the Canada cabin.

But a press conference Edelman put on yesterday was the biggest media event I've ever seen. Four Edelman folks and three Johnson + Johnson global PR contacts put on J+J's announcement they would become an International Olympic Committee (IOC) global sponsor. We were in the massive Main Press Center (in the Fiat factory recently converted by High Museum expansion architect Renzo Piano) and I was in Olympic heaven with about a dozen IOC members, including the president, in the room. But when media started to arrive, it was like a flood. We lost count of media attendees at about 150, including 35 TV cameras and standing room only print media (dozens of reporters from four continents). My Rolodex runneth over!

To put the "feeling Canadian" remarks in context, on Wednesday I was invited to visit friends at the USA House operated by the U.S. Olympic Committee. While there it seemed like so many fellow U.S. folks were quite rude and "ugly Americans" by comparison to the Italian hosts and Canada Place team. I found myself having better conversations with the Torino natives working in the house, and I caught myself asking for the channel to be changed to the Canada speedskating events!

I'm ready to come home -- it will be sad and sentimental to close the Games, but exciting to see how our ATL office can get involved for China and Canada's big shows in 2008 and 2010. Thanks for everyone's e-mails with news from home, and for all teammates who have kept clients happy in my absence. Looking forward to being back there Monday. Arrivederci and Ciao di Torino!